


The Bond That Makes Us One

by Debi_C



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Gen, Off-World, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-02
Updated: 2017-09-02
Packaged: 2018-12-22 18:48:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11973453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Debi_C/pseuds/Debi_C
Summary: It's a really bad day in Dr. Jackson's world.





	The Bond That Makes Us One

I can't believe that it all went so wrong so fast. One minute I was sitting there talking to the Chief about a trade agreement for some naquadah ore. Everything was just fine. I mean really fine to the point of 'Stay for dinner and we can trade war stories and look at my lovely daughters...oh no....'

"No, sir, thank you, but please, no...I'm sorry, wait! No! Stop!"

I'm not even sure of what happened it was so quick. Suddenly they're all standing, and the Chief is shouting, and I get pulled up. Jack... Jack is pushing. He seldom does that but when he does, it's hard and fast. I stumble slightly. Teal'c, who's already up and running, reaches back and grabs my arm. Again, not a common action, but when he grabs, consider yourself grabbed...and jerked forward.

Where's Sam? She was beside Jack, smiling and nodding graciously. Suddenly I don't see her anymore. It's only us three guys and, no, I was wrong, it's Teal'c and I. Apparently, Jack has pulled me up and shoved me into Teal'c who has grabbed me and we two are now moving at a high rate of speed to set new land records.

I'm not sure what set all this off. But I sure as hell need to find out so I can fix it...

I don't see Jack anymore either. And then I hear it, the clatter of his P-90 on full auto.

Ohmygod, what's going on? Where are the others? Teal'c! Stop!

"Oohwoovf" On the ground! I'm on the ground and I'm face down in the dirt. I hear the sound of a staff weapon powering up. Either Teal'c is about to fire on someone or someone else has a staff...that answers that question. The ground explodes by my head, raining dirt and gravel on me. I heard Teal'c grunt and then his weapon fires.

Suddenly, I'm jerked up again by my collar and before I can get upright, we're running again. I run forward until I stumble over a fallen log. I'm released, and I fall behind the wooden shelter. Teal'c dives down beside me and turns to fire his weapon again.

I claw my 9-millimeter out of its holster and scrabble around to peer back in the direction we'd just come from. I see Jack and Sam running towards us, Jack turning around to return fire then my life stops. In slow motion, I see the staff blast elongate and lengthen like a blowtorch. Out of the corner of my eye I see Teal'c stand up and return fire. Sam turns to see the same thing I do, Jack O'Neill, my best friend, my life...my everything...goes down from a direct hit. He stumbles backwards, gracefully, still in slow motion, tumbling elegantly to lie motionless in the dirt. Jack is down. Sam stops her forward motion and reverses direction! . She runs back to his side and kneels by him, picking up his weapon and continuing to fire it at the enemy.

I struggle to my hands and knees, crawling until I gain my feet, propelling myself forward with panicked speed. This can't be happening; this can't be real. Not Jack, not now, not ever!

I hear Teal'c's roar over the weapons. "No, Danieljackson, remain with me!"

I don't even begin to listen to that. I stumble over the log again, racing towards my downed companion. Sam is still firing the weapon over him. She's ejected one magazine and slapped in another one. She's not looking for us. She knows we'll come. She knows we won't leave him...none of us will.

Teal'c is now in full defense mode, standing behind the fallen tree, firing blast after blast of his staff weapon, covering us, protecting us. A few more feet and I reach Jack and Sam. I grasp him roughly by the lapels, dragging his unconscious (please God, let him be unconscious) body into my arms and then over my shoulder. He's heavy, limp, a dead weight in my arms. I can feel the warm liquid that is his life force draining out of him, dripping onto my uniform, soaking into the cloth on my back. But there is no time to think, to decide, only time to act and react. Only time to run, run quickly, run to the gate and into the wormhole and beyond to safety.

I can hear my breath ragged in my throat and chest. The sounds of Sam running, her breath sobbing beside me. We pass Teal'c, he continues firing his staff into the crowd of oncoming Jaffa. He yells something unintelligible but I plow on. My burden is too precious to risk; my path too difficult to not pay attention to my footing.

The distance to the Stargate is indeterminable, the path rough, the brush thick and I dare not let my concentration wander. There is only one thing of any importance to any of us now.

Finally, I see the 'Gate ahead of us. It's monolithic features tower over the landscape. As we run, Teal'c continues firing traveling backwards. I concentrate on running, putting one foot in front of the other, I cannot trip, I cannot fall, I cannot stop...I must keep going, I must be careful, I must get to the Stargate. There is no options or second chances.

Sam has ceased firing her gun and is at the DHD slamming her hands on the symbols. After punching in all seven of the icons, she depresses the red crystal to activate it. We can only wait now, for the magic to conjure.

I move closer to the doorway, watching the chevrons engage, dialing the proper sequence. It seemingly takes forever. If I could push the inner ring around in its action to hurry it I would. At last the sequence is completed and the fountain of plasma fluxes its way into being and then the Iris code must the sent.

Sam has pulled her sleeve up, pressing buttons on the GDO device and is sending the code. I see only the Stargate, my objective. I will not feel the stillness of the form I carry, I will not see the blood on my hands, I know he is alive...I give him no choice in the matter...he will live.

There, there she goes, running to the Stargate then stopping to wave me on. I take another breath to steady me and I am sprinting, running as hard and fast as I am able to leap into... ... And out of the wormhole. My boots clatter on the metal mesh ramp that leads down into the SGC. I continue running, to try to stop now would lead to my falling and possibly dropping my precious burden.

I hear General Hammond's voice shouting, I hear the footsteps of my teammates. There is a familiar voice in my ear and firm hands on me as Dave Siler steadies me. There are more voices, more hands, then I see the gurney pushed by Clark Brown and Janet Fraiser is here with me.

They take my burden from me. I now feel bereft, abandoned, my arms empty without his weight. Someone is touching me, talking to me, calling my name.

"Daniel? Daniel, are you hurt?" I look at Janet uncomprehendingly. Why is she here? Jack needs her, not me.

"I'm fine," I respond numbly.

"Daniel, did you know that you're bleeding?"

"It's Jack's."

"No, it's yours. Come with me."

That's definitely one way to get into the clinic. Sam and Teal'c aren't allowed in, it seems, only me. So I'm happy that I'm hurt. I follow Janet to the infirmary. She leaves me with Clark. He fusses with my arm; it's not bad enough to worry me.

I'm watching Janet and Warner as they work on Jack. They have cut his shirt and his tee shirt off and are cleaning a deep oozing burn on the front of his abdomen. He's going to hurt like a son-of-a-bitch. I can predict his very words and tone.

But first, I'm going to have my say. To quote a cartoon character I recently caught him watching...'I've had all I can stands, I can't stands no more.'

Sometime later, after my minor injury has been cleaned, treated and wrapped, I have finagled Janet to let me stay with Jack.

He's semi-conscious now, gradually coming to with the pain meds slowing him down somewhat. I sit in the uncomfortable chair beside his bed waiting for him to regain consciousness. Finally, after a while, the brown eyes open in confusion.

"Jack?"

"Humph," That's my Colonel, eloquent in his obtuseness.

"Jack, can you hear me?"

"Corse I cn, not deaf." He looks around. "Hosp't'l?"

"Yes, you were shot with a staff weapon."

He tries to shift in the bed, "Arrgggah" Bleary eyes track down my body. "Y'r h'rt."

I smile and shake my head. "It's nothing." I lean close in to him. "Not nearly as hurt as you are." I look at him for a while, memorizing the features, lines and scars of his face. "We need to talk."

"Bot wot?"

"You...I thought that we'd lost you, you jerk."

"Per'tek team." It's his mantra.

"What about you?"

"Not 'por'ent."

I have to admit he's shocked me on that one. "Not important? Who? You?"

He nods tiredly. "Y'r 'por'ent."

"No, Jack, the team means you're important."

He shakes his head wearily. "Yu t'ree."

I lean in again, getting close to him. "Jack, you're important. You're the leader, the guide. Without you, we're...we're lost." He just looks at me uncomprehending.

This will not do, it simply won't. He doesn't get it...doesn't understand. "Jack. You're the most important part of the team."

He closes his eyes in weariness. But I have to press my case...he has to know just who and what he is. "Jack, a long time ago, you all thought that I'd died on Nem's planet, right?"

A nod.

"Jack, you made a very nice speech about me, my role, what I did for the team, right?"

The eyes opened a crack. I knew I had him now.

"You said that I was its heart, its conscience, right?"

A small nod.

"And we can say that Sam, well, she's the mind, the logic, the science...right?"

Another nod. He's got that deer-in-the-headlights look that I know so well.

"Teal'c, he's the strength, the power. His knowledge of the Goa'uld is irreplaceable, so that makes him doubly important." Jack shrugged.

"Then there's you, our leader. Don't you know who you are?" At the doubting look he gave me, I knew that I had him cold. "Jack, without you...there is no SG-1. You could go on without me, you've done it before. And without Teal'c to help, well, we'd blunder around a bit more but we'd still get there." Another look askance. "Sam's important...she fixes things and understands objects. She reads diagrams like I read hieroglyphics...but if she left...there would still be an SG-1."

Jack has both his eyes open now, even if they are squinting a bit.

"But, Jack without you...there is no SG-1. You're what holds us together." He frowns at me in denial. "No, listen to me. Hear what I'm saying to you." I reach down and pick up the hand that's unfettered by tubes and sensor leads. His eyes meet mine before looking at our hands clasped together.

"Without you, well, first, Teal'c would leave. He'd go back to Braytac and the Jaffa rebellion." I say definitely. "He'd rejoin his people and lead them in their revolt against the Goa'ulds without a backwards glance at us tau'ri." He's looking at me now, beginning to follow me.

"What about Sam? Hell, any University in the world would love to have her as a professor. Or the Academy or Area 51 or some other military brain trust. She might even stay and take over the next SG-1. But she'd have three new people on the team...it wouldn't be us."

The eyes look at me curiously, but I already have that answer. "And Jack, the next wormhole I'd travel through would be an incoming one." At his surprised look I can only smile. "Listen very carefully to me, Jack O'Neill. I have lost everyone that I have ever cared about in my whole life. My parents, Sha'uri, Professor Jordan, Sarah, everyone. I...will...not...lose...another loved one. If you leave, I leave...if you go, I go...if you do something stupid and get yourself killed, well...stupid is as stupid does. Cause I'm not leaving you to die somewhere on a battlefield alone. The O'Neill Jackson team was formed seven years ago, and you know what...it comes and goes with the both of us. You got it, Colonel?"

The eyes that have held mine for the last few seconds blink once in acceptance. He gets it. I've got him.

"This team, your team, functioned well enough without me for almost a year while I was gone. You had a new member, and it worked fine. You can't deny it. Sam has taken leave of absences to instruct at the Academy, and we went on without her. Teal'c has gone home for visits, and we managed. But when Jack O'Neill stops leading SG-1, it isn't us...it becomes something else." I shake my head, I think I've made my point. "It's you Jack. You're irreplaceable. Deal with it."

His eyes meet mine, then track to the doorway. There, our teammates watch us from the opening. They enter, as I sit back in the chair.

"He's right, Colonel."

"Indeed, O'Neill."

Jack sighs and closes his eyes. He's had a hard day.

Maybe this time, he'll get it. That we need him, without him we're nothing but a geek, a girl and a Jaffa. He's the glue that holds us together. With him, we're SG-1. Without him...we don't stand a chance.


End file.
